Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will have to counter and say there has been significant investment in Waterford in recent times, particularly the €170 million north quays project. As the Deputy said, Waterford has been a good and attractive location for foreign direct investment companies, especially American multinationals in the pharmaceutical sector. The objective is to protect as many jobs as we possibly can and to work both with the European Union and bilaterally with the US, and also with multinational companies, to get the best strategy to protect those companies to keep them in Ireland and to continue to export to the European and Asian markets. Those companies have done very well in Europe because of their base in Ireland and our strong workforce with high-quality skill sets that are not easily replaceable, certainly not in the short term. We want to do everything possible to protect pharma as best we can.

We are not starting these tariffs. The US has decided to go down this road.

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